If I'm Your Opposite
by JojoKatomi
Summary: "She's not ugly. She's actually rather pretty, don't you think?" "Oh, Pein, what have you gotten yourself into this time?" I don't own Naruto. PeinxHinata
1. Chapter 1

I've never really been popular in school, but I sure have tried, but my shy demeanor doesn't ever seem to clear up. But going into my freshman year in high school, I refused to be shy this year. I was going to be normal. I wasn't going to hide, or stutter or anything. I've heard that there's a quite a few students that refused to go to the school unless they were freshman. I don't know what that's all about, but I guess I'll see. My cousin Neji and I walked to school together like we had since he first moved in with my family and me. My younger sister Hanabi is just going into the 6th grade, so she doesn't walk with us. Neji is a year older than me, and assures me that the first year of high school isn't as bad as people make it out to be, but that doesn't mean anything. Neji has always been more popular than me. He's never had trouble making friends like I have. Although a downfall for this year is that we all have to wear uniforms. So all of the girls are stuck with skirts, and blouses, but I like to cover the blouse with a school sweater. We reach the school, and then walk through the doors. We're all supposed to gather in the lunch room. All of us already got our schedules and locker numbers, so all we have to do is wait for the bell to ring. Neji and I stand there for a moment, just looking around. Neji spots a group of girls yelling at him and smirks.

"Good luck, Hinata." He says, and walks towards the table.

"Thanks." I say.

"Hey, Hinata! Over here!" I hear someone yell. I look over to see Kiba, sitting at a table with Shino. I sigh with relief and walk over to the table.

"Hi, guys." I say, sitting down.

"Hi." Shino greets quietly.

"Hinata, did you hear? There are quite a few new students that demanded to be freshman." Kiba says, looking at me.

"Yes, I did. D-does anybody know who they are?" I ask. Kiba shakes his head. I'm trying to figure out who it could be when they walk through the door. There are seven of them, all boys. Lots of girls around me swoon at the sight of them. I merely nod toward them, tapping Kiba's arm.

"That must be them, eh?" Kiba asks, nodding to them. Shino turns around and looks at them. As I said, there are seven of them. The one that seems to be leading them has blood-orange hair, and lots of piercings in his face. You can see the piercings continue down his arms, and bumps on his shoulders conclude that there is more. Another one has black hair and red eyes. He resembles Sasuke, and I almost mistake him for Sasuke at first, but have to look again to check. There's another red-headed one, except he has dark brown eyes and nothing seems to be of interest to him. The one beside him has blonde hair pulled back into somewhat of a ponytail, and his bangs cover one of his ocean eyes completely. One has blue skin and blue hair and resembles a fish-like look. The last two are a guy with silver hair and pink eyes and he has some sort of weird necklace on, and is cussing form the minute he steps in the building. The other has a mask that covers his mouth but his eerie jade eyes speak for him. They all look way too old to be freshman.

"They're….rather interesting." Shino comments turning back around. I nod. That's when the bell rings. The group of seven begins making their way down a hallway with lockers. I sigh and get up. After double-checking my locker number, I begin down the same hallway. I find the locker easily enough, and then soon figure out that Kiba is just one locker away, with Neji being the locker between. Shino's locker seems to be on the other side of Kiba, but I still don't know who is on my other side. As I'm twisting and turning the lock and trying to open my locker, I see a dark figure come next to me and start to open their locker. I get mine open and then turn over to see who it is. I'm frozen as I look over and see the boy with lots of piercings from before. I quickly look away, hoping he didn't notice me. He doesn't, he actually doesn't seem to even notice me at all until he shuts his locker and finds me there, shoving all of the school supplies into my locker. I look over and find him staring at me. I look down and feel my face slowly start to redden. He just keeps staring at me. What does he want? Thankfully, Kiba comes over.

"Hinata, you ready?" Kiba asks. I turn around and shut my locker.

"Y-yes." I say, and follow him to my first class.

"That guy was like, totally staring at you." Kiba says, looking behind us at him.

"Yeah….I-I dunno why." I say as we walk into the classroom. The teacher tells us to stand at the back of the room until all of the students arrive because he has a seating chart. We as told, and to my surprise, the same orange-haired guy comes in and stands at the back of the room. He sees me and continues to stare at me. I shrug it off and try to ignore him, but it's difficult. He has really weird eyes. When all of the students are in, he takes roll with use standing and then starts giving out the seats. The desks are set up in pairs of two. The teacher calls Tenten's name, and then Kiba's. Right after he calls my name, and then a name I don't recognize. The guy with all of the piercings sits down next to me. I am just having the best luck today. He continues to stare at me. The teacher then passes out stickers that we have to write out name on. As I reach down to grab the marker, he does as well.

"S-sorry, g-g-o ahead." I murmur. He takes the marker and then writes his name on the sticker and sticks it to his shirt. It turns out that his name is Pein. I then take the marker and proceed to write my name on mine, and then stick it to the school sweater I'm wearing. I grow rather uncomfortable with his staring. It's like he doesn't ever look away. Why does he keep looking at me? I finally get the nerve to ask.

"W-why are y-y-you staring a-at m-me?" I manage to get out. He blinks and gives a confused look as if he didn't know he was staring. He looks down.

"Oh, sorry." He says quietly. I look away. The bell rings and everyone gets up and starts to leave. I gather my things and stand up.

"Uh, I'm Pein, by the way." He says. I look up, surprised that he's talking to me.

"I-I'm Hinata." I say quietly.

"Sorry for staring earlier." He says.

"T-that's okay." I say, and leave the classroom. I don't think he knows how intimidating he is. Tenten comes up next to me in the hallway.

"Ugh, Hinata, I'm so jealous! You get to sit by the new kid and I get stuck with Kiba!" She complains jokingly. _I would gladly switch with you_, I think and fake laugh. Kiba comes up after she's gone.

"Why does that guy keep staring at you?" He asks.

"I-I'm not s-sure." I reply.

"It kind of creeps me out." He says, eyeing Pein as he walks by. I shrug it off. He can't be in that many more of my classes, right?

Wrong.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Oh my gosh! I was not expecting that many reviews on this so quickly! Thank you all so much! I really hope you continue to read and enjoy this story! Feel free to PM me if you feel I didn't do something right, or if I need to work on anything. Also, this chapter is from Pein's POV. I might switch it up every once in a while. Anyways, enjoy!**

**~Jojo**

That girl, Hinata, is in all of my classes and her locker is right next to mine. For some reason I always find my attention drawn to her. I'm not quite sure what exactly it is about her. She's very shy, which I don't mind because she also seems very nice to everyone. She's friends with that weird dog-kid Kiba. He's in a lot of her classes, too. He seems a little loud for her, though.This morning in my first class, she was there. She was actually seated next to me. She hardly says anything, and when she does she stutters and is very quiet. I think it's her eyes that draw me in. They're very pearlescent. Almost, clear with a hint of lavender. But, I have seen another boy around with the same eyes. At first I'm not sure why her eyes look like that, but then I remember that she and the other boy must be from the Hyuuga clan, because they both have the same Byakugan eye. Although, the boy is much bolder, and girls seem to fall all over him, yet the girl is so quiet. She almost gives off an innocent feel. Lots of people seem to simply not notice the girl, hell; I didn't even notice her until I shut my locker. I hadn't realized I had been staring at her, I guess. But, soon, I find her in all of my classes, and as I sit down with the rest of the guys, meaning, Itachi, Kisame, Hidan, Kakuzu, Sasori, and Deidara of course, I mention her, but it's enough to perk their interest.

"There's a girl that's in all of my classes." I say, and look up to meet six more very curious glances at me.

"Oh, yeah?" Kisame asks a smirk on his face. I nod. That kid, Kiba walks behind me, heading to a table, and Hinata is not far behind.

"That's her." I say, nodding to her as she walks by.

"Hinata Hyuuga?" Itachi asks, looking at me.

"How do you know her?" Deidara asks.

"She went to school with my brother. She has a very snotty cousin, or she did. I don't know how he acts now, but he wasn't exactly the nicest cousin apparently." Itachi says. I shrug.

"I just noticed her. Her locker is right next to mine as well." I say, hoping it will be the end of it so they don't get the wrong idea. We continue lunch in silence, and then I continue to math class, where I am seated by her for the fourth time today. She is again very shy and every time I merely look over at her, her face reddens. Again, as it seems, her eyes are what draw me in. Although she hasn't looked me right In the face at all, so I haven't really seen her eyes at full force yet. I don't really pay attention in class, but she does. She takes notes and writes lots of things down. I come to the conclusion that she must be very smart. All of the teachers seem to be quite fond of her, rather than the other kids who just kind of sit there, kids like me, I guess.

"….and that's the homework for tomorrow. Get it done, or its detention." The teacher finishes, erasing the board. Shit. I guess I should probably listen more. I look over and find Hinata scribbling away on a piece of paper. I guess I could ask her what the assignment was. I shrug to myself and go for it.

"Hey, Hinata?" I ask. She looks up at me, a slight blush crawling up her cheeks.

"Y-yes?" She says quietly, looking up at me. That's when her eyes hit me. It's not a side-glance, or anything. She looks me full in the face. Her eyes remind of frost that covers plants in the beginning of winter. They have the slightest hint of lavender. They're actually very pretty not that I look. I blink for a couple seconds.

"Uh, what was the homework assignment?" I ask.

"A-all of p-page f-four." She says, and then looks back down. I open the math book and then turn to page four. It's very simply multiplication problems. I get done with that very quickly, as does Hinata, proving my theory that she's really smart. When we have about five minutes of class left, the teacher calls our attention.

"Class, all of you are tutor partners with your desk partner. You have to study together at least 3 times a week, I don't care whose house you use, just get it done, and log it on this. And before any of you ask, yes, you have to do this. Whether you need the help or not. I will pick them up at the end of each week, with a parent signature." The teacher says, passing out a calendar-type paper. What? Tutoring? I don't need tutoring. She doesn't either. She looks over at me.

"So, uh…." She says nervously. "W-where should we, um, s-study?" She asks timidly. I think about his for a minute. We should probably go to her house. It's probably nicer, and I don't really want to bring her over to an apartment full of guys. She may not be very comfortable there.

"Probably your house, if you don't mind. I live with six other people, and their not exactly the most polite." I explain. She nods.

"I-I don't mind. T-tomorrow?" She asks.

"Sure." I say. The bell rings, and we all get up and leave. We agree on only the three mandatory days a week, since neither of us needs the help. So we set it for tomorrow, and the two following days, all of which at her house. We plan to just walk straight to her house after school. At the end of the day she's at her locker the same time I am. The boy with the same eyes as her, I've heard his name is Neji, is standing at her locker waiting for her, although it's right next to hers. Kiba also comes up and joins, as they wait for her to get done.

"Hinata, we should hang out tomorrow." Kiba says, grinning.

"No." Neji says simply. Since when does he speak for her? He didn't even know what she was going to say. Geez, Itachi was right. What a snob.

"N-Neji! Actually, Kiba I can't. I-I have a s-studying thing." She says quietly, shutting her locker. The three walk down the hallway and then continue their conversation, which I don't hear. Itachi comes by my locker, and finds me staring after her.

"You're right. Her cousin is sort of a jerk." I say as he approaches. Itachi nods.

"Yeah. Hinata is the only Hyuuga I know of not to be arrogant." Itachi comments.

"Well, I have to go to her house tomorrow and the next two days for that stupid thing in math." I say, shutting the locker.

"How many classes do you sit next to her in?" He asks, smirking.

"Almost all of them." I answer. He chuckles.

"Let's go." Sasori says, coming up. I nod and we leave. Once we get home, everyone knows about the study thing.

"Ooooh, so Pein has a date!" Kisame yells, as I walk into the kitchen of our apartment.

"I-It's not a date!" I refuse. "The teacher is making us study." I explain.

"Whatever." Kisame says. I sigh and roll my eyes, stalking back into the room I share with Itachi.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Thank you guys so much for reviewing! This chapter is from Hinata's POV. So, enjoy!**

**~Jojo**

I walk to school the next morning with Neji. He brings up something that I didn't expect him to.

"Hinata?" He says, looking over at me.

"Yeah?"

"Who are you studying with tomorrow?" He asks. I don't want to answer. He's going to be mad.

"O-one of t-the new kids." I say quietly.

"That doesn't answer my question." He says harshly. I look down and try to avoid his gaze.

"P-Pein. I'm studying with Pein, b-but we're going t-to be at our house." I say, and wait for his reaction. I've already told my father that Pein is coming over tomorrow.

"What?! No! It's bad enough that Kiba wants to hang out with you, and now that guy?" He says. I flinch at his reaction, I should have expected this. Why does he even care? Father said it was fine.

"It's not his choice, and it's not mine either." I say. Neji rolls his eyes as we walk through the front doors. The bell rings and all of the students get up and head off to their lockers.

"Hey, Hinata!" Kiba says, coming up next to me.

"Hi, Kiba." I say, looking over at him. We make small talk as we both walk to our lockers. I've just opened my locker when Pein walks up and begins to flip around his lock. Neji looks up from his locker and narrows his eyes at Pein. I sigh and shut my locker. Neji still glares at Pein, although Pein has started walking to his class. Neji practically growls and slams his locker. Why is he so angry? I'm still unsure of why he even cares. I shrug it off and walk to science as Kiba chatters about something he saw on TV last night. I nod whenever he looks over at me, but I'm really not all that interested. When we enter the science room, he's still chattering about it and then laughs as he sits down. Pein is already there when I sit down. He looks over at me when I sit down, and offers me a small smile when I look over at him. I smile back, but say nothing. The teacher announces it a free period, which means we can read, work on homework, or talk quietly among each other as long as it's not too loud. I sigh and pick up my book. Just as I open my book he says something.

"Is Neji your brother?" He asks. I look over at him. He doesn't know Neji and I are cousins? Just how new is he?

"U-um, no. H-he's my c-cousin." I say. He nods.

"Does he live with you?" He asks.

"Y-yes. He's b-been living with my father and I f-for a while n-now, my y-younger sister also l-lives there." I say, partially warning him that a deranged eleven year old will probably be running around. He doesn't ask about my mother, to which I am very thankful. I'm still a little curious about him, though.

"S-so, you live with s-six other p-people?" I ask. He sighs and nods.

"Yes, unfortunately we all share a three bedroom apartment. I don't know if you've met any of the other guys that I live with, but, they're the group I walked in with on the first day." He explains. I nod, remembering the seven that walked in. The seven of them sharing only three rooms? Maybe I'm just used to a big house, but that seems a little cramped.

"But, we all get along most of the time. We're kind of like a big family, I guess." He says, smirking. Then it hits me. Doesn't he have parents? Where are they? Why doesn't he live with them? I keep these questions in, because I know how hard it can be to talk about family. The bell rings and we both get up.

"So, I'll uh, see you after school?" He says, looking at me.

"U-uh, yeah." I say, and walk out the door. Kiba comes up next to me.

"What were you two talking about?" He asks, looking at me weird.

"He asked about Neji." I explain. Kiba nods. At lunch, I sit at my regular table with Kiba, Shino, and Tenten.

"So, Hinata," Tenten says, catching my attention as I sit down. I look up at her.

"Study date, eh?" She asks, grinning. I tilt my head to the side. What is she talking about? Then it hits me.

"T-Tenten! It's not like that!" I say, my face going red. Tenten giggles and then smiles.

"I'm just kidding, Hinata." She says. I let out a sigh of relief and smile at her. At the end of the day, I'm at my locker putting all of my things away. I take my backpack and pack all of the math things inside of it and sigh. Pein is still getting all of his math stuff in his backpack when Kiba walks over.

"I'm gonna go ahead and head home." He says. We normally walk home together, so this catches me by surprise. I nod and he leaves. Neji leans against his locker, waiting for Pein and I. Pein shuts his locker and then turns to me.

"Lead the way." He says, smirking. I smile back and turn around. Neji walk next to me, but keeps side-glancing at Pein. What is his problem? We walk to my house in silence. Neji walks through the door first, Pein and I following.

"Father we're home!" I call. I turn around to Pein, and he looks sort of surprised. I'm not sure why. He looks around, taking in our house. I walk into the tea room and motion for Pein to follow me.

"Hinata! I-" I hear from the hallway. It's Hanabi. She stops dead in her tracks upon seeing Pein, and then blinks for a couple seconds, wide-eyed.

"Who is that?!" She asks.

"No one." I reply, walking into the tea room.

"Father, this is Pein. The person I'm studying with." I explain. He merely nods and grumbles a sound in his throat. Neji leans against the doorframe.

"We're just going to go up to my room and study, is that okay?" I ask. He nods again, and another grumble.

"What?! You're just gonna let some guy you don't know go in her room with her?!" Neji asks in disbelief. My eyes widen and I look back at Pein, shooting him an apologetic look. He shrugs it off.

"N-Neji!" I say.

"Oh shut it, Neji." Father grumbles. Neji sighs and stalks up the stairs. I lead Pein up the stairs and past Neji, who turns around to look at us as we walk to my room. He follows me in and closes the door behind him. I drop my bag on the floor.

"I'm really s-sorry about Neji. I don't even know why he cares." I apologize.

"It's alright. It's not a big deal. I'm actually surprised your father didn't care as much as Neji did." He says, looking confused. I shrug and sit on the floor. He sits across from me and drops his bag down next to him.

"Was that little girl your sister?" He asks, looking at me as I pull out the math book.

"Huh?" I ask, confused for a minute, and then I remember encountering Hanabi in the hallway.

"Oh! Y-yeah. That's Hanabi, she's…..nothing like me." I say. He nods. She sort of looks like me, but she's nothing like me. The door to my room suddenly opens and Hanabi is standing there.

"Hinata, ha-"She tries to say before I cut her off.

"No, I have not seen your stuffed animals. Check Neji, he's the one who likes to cut them up." I say. Her eyes grow wide; she squeaks and then runs off to Neji's room. I turn back to Pein with a satisfied smirk.

"Does he really cut up her stuffed animals?" Pein asks, smiling. I shake my head.

"No, but I wouldn't put it past him. Plus, this way they'll both be too busy arguing at each other to bother us." I explain. He nods, still smiling. After about thirty minutes of us studying, Neji barges in.

"What're you two doing?!" He yells, opening the door as if he was trying to catch us doing something.

"Uh, studying." Pein says, pointing to the book. I nod.

"Listen, I don't like you up here alone with my cousin. I do not believe your good-guy act for one second." Neji says. Pein blinks for a couple seconds and then smirks, almost laughing.

"Sorry to break it to you but I'm really not scared of you, and it's not like I plan on 'doing' anything to Hinata, we're just studying. So calm your shit." Pein says. Neji scowls and takes a step forward. I chuckle a little bit and smirk.

"Neji, just go." I say, rolling my eyes. Neji closes the door and leaves.

"Sorry about that. I don't know why he's so over-protective all of a sudden." I say, still smiling.

"That's okay. It's kind of fun to piss him off." Pein says, grinning and laughing. I laugh too.

"You know, y-you're really not as b-bad as people think you are." I say. He smiles.

"Well, uh, thanks. I guess." He says. I smile and we go back to studying. About two hours later, Hanabi calls me for dinner. I look to Pein.

"Y-you're welcome to stay for dinner, if-if you'd like." I say.

"Uh, okay. Only because I think it'll be funny to see how Neji reacts." He says with a smile. I laugh and we go downstairs for dinner. I think Father anticipated on Pein staying, because there's a place set for him. We all sit down and eat dinner, which goes pretty easily after Neji freaks out over Pein yet again and constantly glares at him from the other side of the table. After we're done, we go back up to my room, and after a few more minutes of studying, Pein packs up and then leaves, agreeing to come here tomorrow as well.

"See you tomorrow." He says, turning around and leaving.

"Bye." I say, and close the door. As I turn around Hanabi is standing there with an evil smirk on her face.

"Who was thaaaat?" She asks.

"Just a study partner." I say, walking past her. She steps in front of me.

"So, he's your boyfriend." Hanabi says. My eyes grow wide and my face goes bright red.

"No! Hanabi, he's not my boyfriend!" I say. She chuckles and walks off. Neji peaks his head out of the kitchen.

"He better not be." He growls. I roll my eyes and go upstairs. Everyone leaves me alone for the rest of the night, excluding Neji, who feels the need to come in my room every hour and tell me how uncomfortable he is with Pein and complains about Hanabi thinking that he kills her stuffed animals. I smirk at that, but don't say anything. I sigh; maybe we should study at his apartment after all.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Thank you guy so much for the reviews! It really helps and it means a lot to me! C: This is another chapter from Pein's POV, because I just figured I should do the first study session from his POV also, so. Yeah. Anyway, enjoy!**

**~Jojo**

As we're walking to her house after school, I notice that cousin of hers looking over at me. I ignore his stares, which I can tell that it irritates him. It turns out that she doesn't live too far from the apartments that I live in, which means it won't be much a walk home, which is nice. I can just from the outside that the house is quite large in itself. It's painted white on the outside, but all of the window sills and occasional shutters are black. It's a bit bigger than I thought it'd be, but it's very nice. I'm sure it's just as nice on the inside. The front door is also white, and has an interesting painted glass pattern on it. Neji opens the big, white door and we step inside.

"Father we're home!" She calls out when we're all inside. This is the loudest I've ever heard her talk, and she didn't even stutter. The house is also painted white on the inside. The floors are a light-colored wood. There are lots of doors and hallways leading in lots of directions. It's a lot to take in; although I guess maybe I should have expected this. They are Hyuuga's. There are a few pictures decorating the walls. There's one on the wall of Hinata, standing between what I can only expect to be her parents. Another picture is Hinata, looking very young, with a woman who looks a lot like her. That must be her mom. The last picture seems to be a family portrait, with lots of people. It has Neji, and Hinata, a few more other kids, but I take notice that it's missing the woman that must be Hinata's mom. Why isn't she in that picture? Hinata starts walking towards a doorway off to the left, and nods for me to follow her, but we're stopped in the hallway.

"Hinata! I-" An energetic voice calls, but stops abruptly. It's a child. She only looks about ten, maybe a little older. She has the same brown hair that Neji has, but looks like Hinata in a lot of ways, but she doesn't seem shy at all. This must be her sister. The small girl's eyes fix on me and she looks very confused.

"Who is that?!" She asks loudly. I can already tell that Hinata is the only shy one in the family.

"No one." Hinata says, looking down at the girl and then continuing into the doorway. The small girl trots off and goes down one of the many hallways. I step into the room and find a man sitting at a table. Is this her dad? He sits at a table, with a cup of what seems to be tea in front of him. Neji leans against the doorway of the room, which seems to lead into a kitchen.

"Father, this is Pein. The person I'm studying with." She says. It is her dad. I've never been particularly good with parents. They never seem to really like me. I kind of expected to Hinata's mom to be in here, but she's not. It's just her dad from what I can see, and he doesn't seem to care at all that I'm here, much less with is daughter. The man nods and then grumbles something, not seeming to care.

"We're just going to go up to my room and study, is that okay?" She asks when he doesn't say anything else. Her room? Well, I suppose that it's better than out in the living room, where Neji can breathe down my neck. The man nods again, and makes the same sound in his throat. Does he really not care that much? Most parents aren't like this, from what I am aware.

"What?! You're just gonna let some guy you don't know go in her room with her?!" Neji asks, sounding very distressed. Am I really that bad? Although, this is sort of funny to me. I see Hinata's eyes grow a little wide and she looks back at me, she shows an apologetic look. I shrug, it's alright. I really don't care what Neji thinks of me.

"Oh shut it, Neji." Her father says. This almost makes me laugh, but I choke it back and hope nobody notice that it was funny to me. Neji sighs and then stalks up the stairs. Hinata looks back at me and then leads up to the large staircase up to her room. We pass Neji, who seems to stand outside what I can assume is his bedroom door when we pass. She opens the door and I follow her in and then close the door behind me. I can practically see the image of Neji pressing his ear against the door and smirk, but she doesn't see. The first thing I notice about her room is that it has a very calming aura about it. The walls are painted a very light purple. It reminds me of her eyes. It contrasts well to the very dark blue carpet. Her room is very neat. There are black curtains hanging over the two windows in her room. There's a desk in one corner, and in the other is sort of like a desk, but has a mirror on it. There are more pictures in her room, of family. One I seem to notice more than others is one of Hinata and Neji, who are very small toddlers, maybe three years old. They're sitting together at a table. They both seem to be very happy in the picture. Her closet is one of those sliding door closets, but it's closed. As I said before, the room is very neat. The bed is even made. There's a bookshelf with lots of books. She must like to read or something. There seems to be a flower pot of some sort sitting in the window sill of the larger window. She drops her backpack on the floor and then takes a seat next to it. I do the same.

"I'm really s-sorry about Neji. I don't even know why he cares." She says, looking down. I shrug.

"It's alright. It's not a big deal. I'm actually surprised your father didn't care as much as Neji did." I say. She sorta shrugs, which kind of gives me a feeling like she doesn't want to talk about it. I'm still confused about it, though. I ask a kind of dumb question, but I hope it'll help me understand her more.

"Was that little girl your sister?" I ask. She looks up at me, starting to pull out a math book. She looks really confused for a minute.

"Huh?" She asks, and then seems to remember. "Oh! Y-yeah. That's Hanabi, she's…..nothing like me." She says. I nod, that's sort of the most obvious difference between the two. That, and their age of course. There's a few seconds of silence and then her door opens, there's not a knock or anything. I expect Neji, but it's not. It's Hanabi.

Hinata, ha-" Hanabi starts to say but Hinata cuts her off.

"No, I have not seen your stuffed animal. Check Neji, he's the one who likes to cut them up." She says. Hanabi's eyes grow wide and she lets out a little squeak. She then shuts the door and I hear her footsteps run down the hall to Neji's room. I smirk. Does she mean that? She turns back to me with a satisfied smirk on her face.

"Does he really cut up her stuffed animals?" I ask, smiling. She shakes her head, and somehow that makes that even funnier to me.

"No, but I wouldn't put it past him. Plus, this way they'll both be too busy arguing at each other to bother us." She says. I nod, a smile still in place. We study for about thirty minutes before her door opens yet again, to reveal none other than Neji.

"What're you two doing?!" He yells, flinging open the door. I answer before she can.

"Uh, studying." I say, pointing down to the book in my lap. Hinata nods to confirm this is true. What else would we be doing? Geez, he's paranoid. Neji takes a step forward and shifts his gaze to me.

"Listen, I don't like you up here alone with my cousin. I do not believe your good-guy act for one second." Neji says. I almost laugh. Does he really think that I'm scared of him? Is he serious? I can't even help that I have to be here, and yet is makes him so mad. It's kind of funny to see him overreact.

"Sorry to break it to you but I'm really not scared of you, and it's not like I plan on 'doing' anything to Hinata, we're just studying. So calm your shit." I say, smirking. I see Hinata smile and laugh slightly.

"Neji, just go." Hinata says, and I spot her roll her eyes. Neji leaves.

"Sorry about that. I don't know why he's so over-protective all of a sudden." She says, still smiling. It's kind of nice to see her smile. She never really does. She looks sort of sad most of the time. What does she mean by all of a sudden? Neji didn't do this before? I mean, it's not like a ton of guys are into Hinata. He doesn't act like this around Kiba from what I've seen, only when Kiba wants to see her outside of school.

"That's okay. It's kind of fun to piss him off." I say, grinning and laughing. She laughs too. It's one of the first things I've seen her laugh at. Her voice is always so soft. Does she ever get mad at anything? A few more seconds of silence pass by.

"You know, y-you're really not as b-bad as people think you are." She says. I smile at this; no one has ever said this to me before. Everyone seems to think I'm scary, and I'm sure she did at first too. She still might be. It's hard to come up with something to say back. I take it as a compliment, though.

"Well, uh, thanks. I guess." I say. She smiles and then we return to studying. We study for a full two hours with no one barging in, until they call her for dinner. She looks at me and I figure this is sort of my signal to leave. I'm ready to say something, but she surprises me.

"Y-you're welcome to stay for dinner, if-if you'd like." She says. I think about this for a minute. I mentally sigh. The guys are gonna give me hell for this.

"Uh, okay. Only because I think it'll be funny to see how Neji reacts." I say, smiling. She laughs and I follow her down the stairs to their kitchen/dining room. I'm surprised to find a place set for me at the table. All of sit down and eat dinner. I try to ignore the occasional stare of Hanabi and Neji, who both seem a little weirded out by my presence. Neji freaked out at first when he found out that I was staying for dinner, but then settled for glaring at me across the table, which I ignored. Dinner went quietly, as her father is much of a talker. A lot of it was Hanabi talking about her first couple of days in 6th grade. I was about right with her age, but she sometimes acts a lot younger. After we're all done with dinner, we go back up to her room and study some more, before I start to pack up all of my math supplies and leave. As I'm leaving I see Hanabi pop up behind Hinata, but Hinata doesn't notice. I agree to come here tomorrow, and then head off. As I'm walking away from her house, I notice that there is a small black gate that surrounds her house. Its left open all the time, I assume because it was open when I got there and when I left. I walk about three or four blocks over and then reach the apartment. As I'm taking the elevator up, I wonder what the others are going to say about this. There's no sense in lying to them because they'll know. I open the apartment door and find Kisame and Deidara in the living room sitting on the couch.

"Dinner's in the microwave!" Kisame yells.

"I'm not hungry." I reply, walking down the small hallway to the room Itachi and I share. Itachi is already in there, but he's reading on his bed. I drop my backpack on the floor and then sit down on my bed and sigh.

"How was it?" Itachi asks, looking up at me from his book.

"Fine. Did you know she had a younger sister?" I ask. He shakes his head.

"No. There's dinner in the microwave." He says, looking back down.

"I know. I'm not hungry." I say.

"Are you sure?" He asks. I nod.

"Yeah. I ate dinner at her house." I reply. I see him raise an eyebrow and smirk.

"Shut up." I say. He laughs and I roll my eyes. I swear he acts like a child sometimes.

"Her cousin is very over-protective, and it seems her dad doesn't even give a damn about a teenage boy going up to her room with her." I say.

"Yeah, her family isn't all that supportive." Itachi says.

"I didn't see her mom at all either. There was a couple pictures, but she wasn't there." I say, still confused.

"She's dead, Pein." Itachi says coldly. My eyes widen. Wait, Really?

"Are you sure?" I ask. Itachi nods. I didn't realize it was anything like that. That caught me completely off guard. How long has she been dead? I can't exactly ask Hinata these things. I shrug it off for now. If her mother is dead, shouldn't that mean that her father should be there for her more? Shouldn't that push him to be closer to her? Is that why she's so timid?


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: Thank you all again for reviewing, it just brightens up my day! So thanks! Anyway, this is Hinata's POV again. So, enjoy!**

I walk to school with Neji as usual, but he can't seem to let last night go without being sour about it.

"I don't like him, Hinata." Neji says, scowling. Doesn't he think I already know that? What with him barging in and all. I inwardly sigh.

"Y-yes, I know." I reply. Why can't he just drop it? Father seemed to think that he was okay, so what's the big deal? We don't talk the rest of the way there, it's just Neji sulking. We walk through the doors and the bell rings. Kiba comes up next to me with Shino not far behind.

"So, how'd your study thing go?" He asks.

"It went fine, I guess. Neji seemed really paranoid about it though." I say. Kiba smirks.

"That's only because Neji is way too over-protective." Kiba says, laughing. I smile. Yeah, he has a point there.

"I know." I say and start to open my locker. I see Pein make his way over to his locker. I look over at him. He looks over and offers a small smile. I smile back. I can't help but see Neji's glares as we share a silent hello. I glance at Neji and then walk with Kiba to our first class. He's talking about how Ino wants to sit with us at lunch today. I happily agree. It's nice to have new people at our table. I sit down next to Pein and he looks over at me.

"Hi." I say quietly. He turns his attention to me.

"Hey, I was thinking that because your cousin is rather…nosy, that after we went to your house today, we could go to my apartment tomorrow?" He asks. His apartment? I guess that'd be okay. Neji is the one who is going to have a problem with it.

"Sure." I say, smiling. He smiles back.

"Okay. I mean, somehow I think that this will make Neji freak out more, but he can't really bother us." Pein says, shrugging. I laugh and I see Kiba look over at me. It kind of surprised me that he wants me to come to his apartment. I'm not worried about it or anything; it's just that I wonder if my presence is going to annoy anyone. I hope not. The day passes very quickly, with not a lot happening out of the ordinary. Ino sits at our table, and she's really nice and says she likes sitting with us. She smiles and lot and makes a lot of funny jokes. Pein and I walk back to my house after school as usual. We talk a little on the way there, but Neji says nothing. He's still mad that Pein is coming to our house. I don't even bother going in and telling Father that Pein is here because I already told him that Pein would be coming over later. I lead him right up to my room where we were yesterday and we set up on the floor again. Not too long into our session my door opens without a knock.

"Hinata, will you play-" Hanabi starts to say, coming in.

"Hanabi, I can't play right now. Go ask Neji." I say. She frowns and leaves.

"She looks a bit like you." Pein says. I blink for a minute. I guess she does. She got more of Father's features where as I resemble my mother more. The main difference is that Hanabi got Father's brown hair, where I got Mother's eggplant colored hair. I always wanted to be more like Mother anyway.

"I guess so." I say, shrugging.

"My mother didn't have the Byakugan, so that's why most of us tend to look like Father more than others. I still don't know why I got her hair…." I trail off. I shouldn't have brought up Mother. I don't really like to talk about her.

"But, since the Byakugan is the dominant trait it kind of over-powers everything else." He says. It sounds like it was meant to be a question, but came out a statement. I just nod and we go back to studying. He stays for dinner again, which nobody, except Neji of course, minds. When Pein leaves, Neji comes up behind me.

"I don't like him here." Neji says.

"I know. T-that's why we're going to his h-house tomorrow." I say, trying to head back to my room. Neji stands in my way and grabs my shoulders.

"No! There is no way you're going over to that guy's house!" Neji growls angrily. Doesn't he know that he's the one who's causing that? I sigh.

"N-Neji, I have t-to." I say.

"No! We're talking to your father about this!" Neji yells, and pushes me into the tea room, still holding my shoulders.

"Hiashi! She's going to that guy's house tomorrow!" Neji yells.

"Neji, don't raise your voice at me." Father says simply, sipping from his tea.

"But, don't you realize he can't be trusted!" Neji yells again.

"What did I just say? And take your hands off my daughter, Neji." Father says. Neji takes his hands off my shoulders and I walk back to my room. Father doesn't care. I don't know why Neji thought that he would. I plop down on my bed and hope that Neji can stop his problems with Pein. There's a knock on my door, and then a sad looking Hanabi comes in and sits on my bed.

"Hinata, Neji won't play Simon Says with me." She says with a sad look. She's holding a handheld Simon Says game. It's oval-shaped and has four colored rectangles on it. I mentally sigh.

"Alright, I'll play with you." I say and sit up.

"Yay!" She yells, thrusting the object into my hands. We play this for about an hour and then she leaves.

The next morning when Neji and I are walking to school he has a permanent scowl on his face.

"N-Neji…" I say.

"He's bad for you, and I know it. He's bad news, Hinata. I want you to stay as far away from him as possible, okay?" He asks, looking at me. I sigh.

"I-I'll try." I say. We get to school and the bell rings, and Kiba and Shino come up to me.

"Hey, Hinata!" Kiba says energetically.

"Hi, guys." I say, smiling at them. Kiba grins back at me and says that Ino will be joining us for lunch again for today and maybe Sakura as well. I nod and say that I'm okay with that because they're both very nice. At lunch, both of them do sit at our table, and there's a lot more happiness at the table than usual. I look over and notice that Pein is sitting at a table with those six other people. They're a very interesting group of people. I wonder if they're as nice as he is. At the end of the day, Pein and I manage to slip away from Neji in the hallway of crowded people.

"I think we lost him." I say, looking back as we walk out of the front doors of the school. I don't see Neji anywhere, which is good. I remember Kiba being a little upset that I was going to Pein's apartment, but told him that I would hang out with him and Shino tomorrow.

"Yeah. Good thing, too." He says, grinning. I smile and we start walking in the direction of his apartment complex. He tells me about all of them on the way there.

"Well, there's Kisame. He has blue skin. He looks sort of like a fish, I guess. Gills and stuff, too. And then there's Itachi. He's Sasuke's brother, if you didn't know that. And Sasori is the redhead who looks like nothing is interesting all the time, although he does like puppets. And Deidara is the blonde one who likes explosions. Then there's Hidan, and he's probably the only one you really have to worry about. He cusses non-stop, and is, well, I'll but it blatantly, he's kind of a jerk I guess. Kakuzu is rather quiet. He wears a mask and has kind of weird eyes. He also really likes money." He explains. I nod and listen, and occasionally laughing as he explains them to me.

"They sound….interesting." I say, smirking. He nods. We take an elevator up to the fifth floor. We come to a stop outside the door. He turns to me.

"Okay, I'm just going to apologize for anything that they're about to say that is going to offend you in any way. So, I'm sorry in advance." He says. I nod.

"Okay." I say and nod. He opens the door.

"Guys, I'm home. And I have, uh, company." He says, walking in. I walk him behind him, looking at the ground.

"Company? What're you-" I hear a voice say. A blue figure appears from out of the hallway and stares at me as I lift my eyes from the ground.

"Is that a…girl?" The blue guy asks, his eyes widening. I can easily assume that this is Kisame. Pein sighs.

"Yes, Kisame. This is Hinata. I've been studying with her for the past two days." Pein says.

"Kisame what are you blabbing about? A girl or something?" I hear as another person comes around the corner. This must be Deidara because he has long blonde hair that is covering one of his blue eyes. The one eye that is visible widens when he sees me. I look down and blush.

"Yeah! Pein has a girl over!" Kisame says loudly.

"What?!" I hear from another room.

"Who's-" Deidara starts to say but Pein cuts him off.

"Just go get the others so I don't have to explain this a thousand times." Pein says, sighing and rubbing the bridge of his nose. Deidara nods and calls all of the others. They all gather in the doorway of what I assume is a kitchen. The rest of the six come and seem very confused to find me here.

"Guys, this is Hinata. I've been studying with her for the past few days. Before you ask, yes she is a girl. We're only here because her cousin is rather over-protective and it's hard to get studying done at her house." He explains. I blush and look down.

"H-hi." I manage to get out. My face turns all shades of pink and red.

"Why the hell is she so fucking shy?" Comes a voice. I can assume that this is Hidan, the one who cusses all the time. I manage to look up from the ground. They're all staring at me. I'm trying desperately not to freak out, and it's not working.

"What's up with her eyes?" A redheaded guy asks. This must be Sasori.

"Yeah, they're like, white." Deidara adds. I blush again.

"She's a Hyuuga. It's Byakugan." Pein explains. I nod.

"Oh! That's right! You're the heiress!" Kisame says suddenly. I shrug.

"I-I, yeah." I say.

"You idiot," The one that looks like Sasuke says. "Of course she's the heiress. She's the oldest." He adds.

"At least she's hot." Hidan says. I'm pretty sure my face turned the color of fire just about then. My eyes widen and I see Pein roll his eyes and sigh. He mumbles something to himself and then turns to me.

"Let's just go." He says, and then grabs my wrist, dragging me to what I assume is his room. As he's dragging me to his room I hear someone yelling.

"Ooohh! Running away with your girlfrie-" I hear and then he shuts the door behind me. What? They don't really think that I'm his girlfriend, do they? Or are they just kidding? They're pretty far off if they're not. I'm just his friend. I don't even know if he considers me as his friend.

Once inside his room he sighs. The walls are painted a dark red and the carpet is mat black. The walls are pretty bland. There's a two beds in this room, although it's quite obvious that all of them have to share rooms because there's only three rooms. I hear Pein sigh heavily.

"I'm really, really sorry about that. They're just so-" He starts to say, but I cut him off.

"Hey, it's fine. You think Neji's friends don't do the same thing? Because they do." I say, smirking.

"I dunno. I just, wished they would be a little more….respectful I guess. I don't know. It just bothers me when they act like that." He says.

"It's alright. You had to deal with Neji." I say. He looks up at me and smirks.

"Yeah. Just so you know I do share this room with Itachi, who is probably the best one I could have roomed with regarding the situation. He's pretty quiet, and he might not even come in here." Pein says. I nod.

"I figured since there was another bed." I say, nodding to it. I start to say something else but he stops me.

"Wait, shh." He says. He turns his head towards the door. He quietly walks over to it and then pulls it open quickly. Behind it they're all there. They all had their ears pressed against the door, trying to listen to us talk. How did he know they were there?

"Will you guys just go?!" Pein asks. All of them run off but Itachi, who grins and looks guilty.

"Please tell me that wasn't your idea…" Pein says, scowling.

"I- it-, noooooooo." Itachi says, but the way he says it makes it very obvious that it was totally his idea.

"Are you staying?" Pein asks and sighs. Itachi smiles and then walks into the room. Pein and I sit on the floor in front of his bed and try to ignore the stares of Itachi, as he's constantly watching us. We do manage to get through studying uninterrupted, other than Itachi and his staring. He tries to disguise it as reading, but it's not working. About two hours later I figure I should probably get heading home.

"I should probably go." I say, shoving the math book into my backpack and standing. He stands too, and the follows me out into the hallway.

"W-what're you doing?" I ask, as I see him following me to the elevator.

"Walking you home. It's the least I could do after how they acted." He says.

"You don't have to." I say, surprised.

"No, I insist. It's the least I can do, Hinata." He says firmly. I look down.

"O-okay." I say. The thought crosses my mind that he just wants to get away from his roommates, which is what I think is the most logical explanation for him walking me home. We make small talk on the way there, but nothing too important. He seems a bit more nervous than usual, but maybe that's just me. When we arrive at my house I turn around to face him.

"Thank you." I say. He shrugs.

"No big deal." He says simply. I turn around and put my hand on the handle.

"Goodnight, Pein." I say.

"Goodnight Hinata." He says. I go inside after that. It smells of food, but I'm not hungry. I get about five steps in before a very, very angry Neji has popped up in front of me.

"Hinata! There you are!" He says, pointing at me.

"Y-yes. Hi." I say, and walk past him into the kitchen.

"Hinata! I told you not to go to his house!" Neji yells.

"Neji, you don't tell my daughter what to do. If I say it's fine, it's fine. And in this case it was fine." Father says. I nod, and then walk up to my room. At least Father is sticking up for me somewhat. Hanabi is nowhere to be seen, so she must be in her room doing something evil. I sigh and walk into my room. A lot has happened today. His roommates sure are interesting. Probably the weirdest bunch of people I've ever met. Well, probably not, but pretty close.


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: Thank you guys SO much for the reviews! I love them! This one is, again, from Pein's POV, so, I hope you don't mind. I'm sorry this one took longer, I'm preparing for school and junk. CX Enjoy!**

**~Jojo**

Hinata and I easily slip away from Neji in the hallway, even though he tries to spot us. We walk out the front doors of the school and then I lead her in the direction of the apartment building. She doesn't ask about my roommates, and I didn't expect her to, but I figure she should at least know what she's getting into ahead of time. I explain them to her after we're sure we lost Neji. She nods and then occasionally laughs as I explain them. I honestly didn't think she would be this willing to go to my apartment, especially with six other roommates living there that she doesn't have the least idea about. She seems very trusting of me, and I'm not sure why.

"They sound….interesting." She says with a small smile. I nod. We board the elevator and it stops on the fifth floor. I stop her outside the door because I want her to realize what she's about to deal with.

"Okay, I'm just going to apologize for anything that they're about to say that is going to offend you in any way. So, I'm sorry in advance." I explain. She looks at me a little curiously and then nods. I sigh and open the door, hoping that they're not doing anything too embarrassing.

"Guys, I'm home. And I have, uh, company." I call. I take a few steps inside. At least they're being moderately quiet today. I can already see that Hinata is way too nervous that she needs to be. Her eyes aren't leaving the ground and she looks really stiff. I don't blame her, though. Going into an apartment with seven strangers is not exactly what she's used to, especially since she's shy and very timid in the first place. I hear footsteps start to come around the hallway.

"Company? What're you-" Kisame says, appearing out of the hallway. His lock on Hinata and this is when she looks up from the ground. She's already blushing. I can already tell that this is going to be more than a little uncomfortable for her.

"Is that a…girl?" Kisame asks, his eyes widening. He looks over at me with a grin I sigh and roll my eyes. I already know what he's thinking, and he's dead wrong.

"Yes, Kisame. This is Hinata. I've been studying with her for the past two days." I explain. He wasn't listening at lunch.

"Kisame what are you blabbing about? A girl or something?" I hear Deidara say as he also rounds the corner. The eye that I can see widens when he sees her. Her eyes fix on the ground again and she blushes a shade deeper.

"Yeah! Pein has a girl over!" Kisame yells. At this point, I am already regretting bringing her here, and would rather deal with Neji and Hanabi at her house.

"What?!" I hear Hidan yell from his room with Kakuzu.

"Who's-" Deidara starts but I cut him off. I really don't need to explain this so many times, it's easier for all of them to just come out here and see her and know her so that I never have to explain why she's here again.

"Just go get the others so I don't have to explain this a thousand times." I say, sighing. I really hope this doesn't go as bad as I'm thinking it will. Deidara nods at me and then runs off to get the others. A few seconds later, all of them are in the doorway of the small kitchen, staring at Hinata as if there is something wrong with her. I've never, ever brought a girl over to the apartment, so I know what they're all thinking, and they're all wrong.

"Guys, this is Hinata. I've been studying with her for the past few days. Before you ask, yes she is a girl." Even though that part is quite obvious. "We're only here because her cousin is rather over-protective and it's hard to get studying done at her house." I explain. I'm really hoping they understand more now, and they don't think that she's my girlfriend because she isn't. But this explanation doesn't seem to turn them in the right direction, it rather steers them in the direction I really didn't want them to go with this. Hinata blushes another shade deeper and looks down. She seems to struggle with her words before finally getting something out.

"H-hi." She stutters quietly. Most of them don't really know what to say to her, although Hidan always has something to say.

"Why the hell is she so fucking shy?" Hidan says. This is one of the questions I was hoping to dodge, mainly because I don't know the answer. She looks up from the ground only to meet six pairs of eyes she's not familiar with. I can tell she's trying really hard not to start shaking and freaking out. It's obviously not working very well, especially with how blunt Hidan is.

"What's up with her eyes?" Sasori asks. Oh, finally. A question I can answer without embarrassing her too much.

"Yeah, they're like, white." Deidara adds, stating the obvious. She blushes again, but it's lighter this time.

"She's a Hyuuga. It's Byakugan." I explain. Was no one listening at lunch? She nods to confirm.

"Oh! That's right! You're the heiress!" Kisame says. She shrugs her small shoulders in an attempt to reply, and again struggles for words to answer.

"I-I, yeah." She says quietly.

"You idiot," Itachi says. "Of course she's the heiress. She's the oldest." He adds. How did he even know she was the oldest? Itachi's a little creepy.

"At least she's hot." Hidan says. Her face then goes bright red. This was the one thing I had wanted to avoid above all others. Her pearly eyes widen and she looks back down at the ground.

"Not that anyone would argue with him." I mutter and then turn around to face her.

"Let's just go." I say and grab her wrist. Her skin is like ice. As soon as I touch her, it's like icy electric currents shoot up my arm. I almost drop her wrist, but manage to keep a hold on it. Why is she so cold? I suppose I never really noticed before, as our arms have only brushed accidentally once or twice in classes. Maybe it's just heat from the embarrassment of my roommates, but she's really cold. She's wearing a sweater, is it cold in here? I tow her down the hallway, but as I'm dragging her I hear someone yelling.

"Ooohh! Running away with your girlfrie-" Someone yells, and that's all they get out before I slam the door and the sound it cut off. I knew that's what they were thinking, but that's not it. We're just friends, I mean, if we're even friends. I sigh, still regretting bringing her here, but she was to get more comfortable with me, she should have met them anyway. It was bound to happen sometime. I sigh, and hope they've all returned doing to do whatever they were doing before I showed up with Hinata, but I know they haven't. They're probably still in the kitchen, discussing what has just happened. I sigh a little more heavily and then turn to her.

"I'm really, really sorry about that. They're just so-" I start to say, but surprisingly, she cuts me off.

"Hey, it's fine. You think Neji's friends don't do the same thing? Because they do." She says with a small smile. That surprises me a little bit; does she always just let people talk to her like that? She shouldn't. She should at least stand up for herself, especially if it's Neji's friends. How does Neji freak out of me studying with her, but doesn't care about his friends talking to her like that? It kind of makes me angry, but I'm not sure why.

"I dunno." I say. "I just, wished they would be a little more….respectful I guess. I don't know. It just bothers me when they act like that." Surprisingly less that Neji's obnoxious friends.

"It's alright." She says. "You had to deal with Neji." I look up at her and smirk. I guess that's true. But I don't think that he's as bad as my roommates. Especially not when they act like that.

"Yeah. Just so you know I do share this room with Itachi, who is probably the best one I could have roomed with regarding the situation. He's pretty quiet, and he might not even come in here." I explain. She nods and then looks over at the other bed in the room.

"I figured since there was another bed." She says, nodding to it. That's when I hear it. That little rustling outside of the door. It sounded like something was rubbing up against the door. Although, she doesn't seem to hear it, I sure as hell do. Are they really right outside the door? I want to say no, but a part of me is damn sure they are. She starts to say something else, but I stop her so I can listen more.

"Wait, shh." I say. I turn my head towards the door and hear it again. She still doesn't hear it, it seems. I carefully walk over to the door so they don't hear my footsteps, and then rip open the door. Sure enough, they're all there. I mentally growl. Can they act normal for once? No, of course not. I roll my eyes as most of them give guilty smiles.

"Will you guys just go?!" I ask. Most all of them scatter, but Itachi is left behind, flashing me a guilty smile.

"Please tell me this wasn't your idea…" I say. Itachi looks down.

"I- it-, noooooooo." Itachi says. What a liar, it totally was. I sigh heavily.

"Are you staying?" I ask. It's his room too, and I can't really kick him out. I mean, I totally could, but I'm not going to. Itachi smiles, walking into the room. Itachi watches us from his bed behind his book, although it's very obvious that he is just watching us. A couple times throughout studying, I catch her smiling. She has a very small smile. It's rather cute, actually. I mentally slap myself after thinking that. I can't think like that. About two hours after we start, she shoves the math book into her bag and stands.

"I should probably go." She says. I stand, and then follow her out into the hallway. I figure I should at least walk her home, after the way they acted. She may be unsure of the way home, and I want to make sure that she gets home okay. A small girl like her along at night is just bait for any creeper. I follow her to the elevator, but that's when she looks back at me, her pearly eyes slightly widened. She says something, but I'm not quite sure what it is because her eyes have me captivated again. It sounded like a question; I make an attempt at an answer, hoping that this was the question she asked.

"Walking you home. It's the least I could do after they acted." I'm really hoping that she asked what I was doing, or why I was following her. If not, this'll just make me sound crazy or something. Her eyes widen a bit more, and I make sure to look at the ground this time, so as not to get lost in them again. Why am I like this all of a sudden? First, it's her smile, and now her eyes. What's wrong with me? I need to stop this. This is the last day for the week anyways, so I probably won't see her much after this.

"You don't have to." She says.

"No, I insist. It's the least I can do, Hinata." I say. I'm not taking no for an answer. Luckily this time she agrees. I walk her home, we make minor small talk, but I find myself really nervous. I'm not sure why. Every time my eyes stray from the ground, they're on her. Her silky blue-black hair that falls all the way to her hips, her pale, almost translucent unblemished skin, or those eyes. Those eyes filled with frost. I can't help it, my eyes are just stuck to her. This is when I first notice how…..pretty she is. She's very pretty, beautiful, actually. She has such gentle beauty, it's not in your face, but you do notice it. I've noticed that she never wears make up, never. Maybe that's what I like about her. She doesn't need anything to be pretty, she does it all on her own, but she doesn't even know it. I need to stay as far away from her as possible. I can't get close to her. She doesn't want me, and I know that. We get to the door and she thanks me. I shrug, and tell her not to worry about it. She turns around and is about to go back inside, when she looks back at me over her shoulder, and mutters a quiet goodnight. I return it and then walk away. She goes inside, where I can already see Neji. I roll my eyes. I can't get her off of my mind. I find myself missing her quiet footsteps beside me, and then quickly tell myself to suck it up. She doesn't want me, and I try really hard to tell myself that I don't want her, but there's a small part in the back of my mind that smirks at me and tells me that I do. I return home, to find all of them in the living room. They all look at me with smirks when I walk by, I roll my eyes and stalk to my room. I am not in the mood. I lay down on my bed and stare up at the ceiling. Without knowing it, I fall asleep.

**A/N: (This is a dream Pein is having :) **

_She sits next to me on the bench. The sun is so bright, and the sky is so blue. Everything looks so nice. The sun beams down on us. The temperature is perfect. I'm sitting really close to her less than a foot away, but she doesn't seem to mind. In fact, she seems to like it, considering how she looks over and smiles at me. Her smile is the same. The same smile that's so small, yet shows so much. Her snowy eyes light up, as does everything else. Her shining hair gently lifts off her shoulders as the wind blows. It reveals more of her neck and down to her collar bone, where her shirt interrupts her skin. I can almost see her veins, she's so pale. Right now I can only think of how beautiful she looks in the sunlight. She places her hand over mine on the bench and smiles more. Her hand is still cold, still ice__.__ Her hand lightly curves around mine, and her fingers intertwine with mine. She bats her long eyelashes at me and giggles. I grin at her, not knowing what to say, or if I should say anything at all. She returns the grin by leaning over and pecking my cheek lightly__.__ A small blush creeps up my cheeks and she smiles again._

I jerk upright in my bed. My breathing is a little heavy. What the hell was that? I look over to the alarm clock next to me, my breath slowing down. It reads 6:45AM. I might as well get up. I heave myself off of the bed and rethink what just happened. That was definitely no nightmare.


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: Hi! Thank you guys for the reviews! If you have any suggestions, feel free to PM me! This chapter is from Hinata's POV. So, yeah. Enjoy!**

The next morning I slip out the door early, walking to school alone. I much prefer walking alone, or with anyone but Neji, but Neji had my father convinced, saying something about how it's not safe for me to be alone. I rolled my eyes at the statement, but agreed anyway, knowing I couldn't really argue seeing as my father likes to take Neji's word over my own. As I expected, Kiba and Shino are already at a table in the morning when I get there. Kiba looks up at me with a smile, and when he doesn't see Neji looks slightly confused.

"Hey, Hinata! Where's Neji?" Kiba asks, looking for him. I shrug. He's probably just now walking to school.

"H-he's still at home." I say. Kiba nods. We all talk about what we did yesterday but I narrowly avoided my turn to speak by waving to Tenten across the room. I don't really want to have to explain this to them, Kiba already thinks that Pein is weird, and I'm sure that knowing that he lives with six other people who are rather…interesting isn't really helping his image, so I keep it to myself for now. The bell rings and I walk to my locker, passing Pein in the hallway. He doesn't see me though; he seems to be very concentrated on his thoughts. I get to my locker before he does, and I look up at him as he stops at his locker next to me. He looks at me and smiles.

"Hey." He says, twisting around the lock.

"Hi." I say, smiling and opening my locker. I get out all of my stuff and walk to class with Kiba like normal. The class goes fairly normal, besides the fact that Pein is staring at me again. But he's looking at me a different way than before. I'm not sure why. In one of the very few classes I don't have with Pein, I finish my library book, and excuse myself from class to go return it to the school's library. I walk down the hallway, it's quiet but I think I can hear other footsteps.

"Hey, Hyuuga!" I hear someone yell. It comes from behind me. I turn around to see Ami. A purple-haired girl, who from what I've heard, can be quite mean. What does she want? Especially with me?

"Ami?" I ask as she approaches.

"What are you doing in the hallway?" She asks with a snarl. I become extremely nervous. I look down at the floor and try not to freak out. I try to find simple words to explain, but that seems to be a difficult task for my brain right now.

"J-just taking m-my b-book back t-to the l-l-library." I manage to get out in a quiet tone. She takes a step forward, staring down at me.

"Not anymore." She says simply. I look up at her, seeing as she's got more than a few inches on me. My eyebrows knit together in confusion, but that's when she takes the book and throws it in the opposite direction, smirking evilly. It lands about ten feet away. My eyes widen and become full of fear.

"H-hey!" I say, surprised. I try to take a step forward to retrieve it, but she steps in front of me and easily pins my shoulders roughly against the locker. There's a sharp pain in my back and shoulders as she starts to press harder. It must be the locks on the lockers.

"Whatcha gonna do about it, Hyuuga?" She asks, grinning. Why is she doing this? I've never done anything to her. I've never even talked to her!

"I-I…" I try to say, but I can't get anything out. She shoves my shoulders harder against the lockers and I wince and try not to whimper in pain.

"You just gonna stand there and stutter?" She says, and shoves me once more. I lightly push against her shoulders, trying to get her away from me, but she's really strong and I'm not able to get her off of me.

"Hinata?" I hear a familiar voice say. I look up and find Pein standing about ten feet away. My eyes light up and I smile. Ami looks taken aback by his presence. She lets off on my shoulders a little, but I'm still stuck.

"Who's that? Your little boyfriend?" Ami asks with venom in her tone. She looks back at me, an evil smirk on her face.

"I- N-no." I say and blush. Pein is in no way my boyfriend by any means. He's hardly even my friend at all.

"Just get out of here, Ami." Pein says, scowling. Ami rolls her eyes and lets off on my shoulders completely. I fall forward a bit off the locker, and try to catch my balance again. I fall to my knees, but I am quickly able to recover and stand.

"Ugh. Whatever." She says and walks away. Pein waits until she's gone and then walks over to me, picking my book up as he goes.

"Are you alright?" He asks, looking concerned. I nod. He holds the book out to me, smiling lightly.

"Y-yeah. I'm okay. T-thank you, Pein." I say. But before he can answer, I hear faster footsteps coming towards us. Ino and Sakura appear, wide-eyed and surprised.

"Hinata! Are you okay?" Sakura asks, running up to me and gently laying a hand on my shoulder. Ino follows right after her, both looking concerned as well.

"I-yeah. I'm fine." I say. Did they see it too? They must've.

"We saw the whole thing! She's so mean! Why would she do that to you?" Ino asks. I shrug, I really don't know. I've never even talked to her before. Their eyes drift to Pein, who stands there, looking at the two girls. They don't seem to know him, or to have even noticed him until now, but they sure do now. They eye him suspiciously before I am able to explain.

"Who's this?" Sakura asks. I look at Pein.

"Oh. This is Pein. He and I study together for math." I explain. They nod.

"That's cool. We should be getting back to class." Ino says and Sakura nods. Both then disappear behind a corner.

"I should be going, too. Be careful." He says. I nod. He walks away after. I get to the library and back with no more problems, even though, I'm not even sure why she had a problem with me in the first place. She never seemed to care for me at all, so we just simply ignored each other's presences up until this point. I'm really glad Pein stepped in, though. I don't know what I would've done if he hadn't. I replay the scene in my head over and over, but he seemed to have appeared out of nowhere. What was he doing in the hallway anyway? What were _any_ of them doing in the hallway? I brush off all of the questions I have because I'm sure he did it simply to be nice. I don't tell anybody what happened; I don't have a reason to. Sakura and Ino seemed to either ignore the subject, or simply forget about it. I notice Pein sitting at the same table he always does with all of his roommates. When I look over, he's already looking at me. I smile and offer a small wave, which nobody from my table seems to see. He replies the same way, waving at me. At the end of the day, just when I close my locker Pein puts his hand on my shoulder. I look over at him, slightly surprised.

"Can I talk to you for a minute?" He asks. I nod, and seeing as neither Neji nor Kiba has spotted me yet, Pein and I walk down the hallway. We don't really know where we're going, but does it really matter? We seem to walk in the direction of the front doors to the school.

"S-so, what did you want to t-talk to me about?" I ask. He looks over at me.

"It's just something that's been bothering me." He says. I nod. "It's about earlier. Do you always just _let_ people talk to you like that? I mean, you could've been seriously hurt if I hadn't stepped in. I guess I just worry about you…..I dunno." He says, getting quieter as he speaks. I shrug.

"I-I don't know. I just, have always been really quiet. F-for some reason I can n-never stand up for myself." I say, looking down. Why does he care so much? It's really nice of him to care about me and stuff, but why? I'm not mad about it; it just doesn't really make sense to me. I've just been used to Neji, who had always put me down from a young age, not a lot now, but he did lots when I was smaller. But Pein, he…..genuinely cares about me?

"I'm honestly not sure why I worry about you so much. I guess it's just because you're so nice to everyone, I don't really understand why people would be mean to you. Yeah, you're shy, but you're never mean." He says. He's right. I'm never really mean to anyone, even people that I don't like. Of course I'm shy, it's just who I've been for years, and that's who I've gotten used to being.

"I-I'm not sure why I'm so shy. I-I wish I wasn't. It-it's really nice of you t-to worry about me, but you shouldn't. I-I'm fine." I explain. He shakes his head.

"You're not fine. You struggled to say anything to Ami, let alone, fight back." He says. I shrug.

"I guess it shouldn't bother me as much as it should, but it does. Anyways, you should….go. Don't want Neji mad at you." He says. I nod.

"R-right." I say and leave. I walk home alone, but when I get there Neji is home, and extremely mad that I left both times without him, and gives me a speech about safety. I tell him that I am fifteen years old, and I can manage walking to and from school by myself. I go up to my room. I'm still confused as to why Pein cares. He's not the type of person you would think that would care about me so much. I don't understand it.


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: Alrighty! Hello! This is chapter eight! This chapter is from Pein****'s POV, I just thought it would be a good idea, so, here we are! Enjoy!**

**~Jojo**

"Whatcha gonna do about it, Hyuuga?" I hear someone ask in a mocking tone from the next hallway over. The voice is low, but clearly female. Hyuuga? Like, Hinata? Or Neji? I check the next hallway but when I see what it is it enrages me a lot more that I thought it would. Hinata is pinned against a wall of lockers by a much taller female. From what I can see, it appears to be Ami, but since her back is facing me, I'm not completely sure. How dare her! Why is she doing that to sweet little Hinata? Hinata doesn't have a mean fiber in her body, so there is no possible way that she could have offended Ami and meant it. Or maybe Ami's just being a bitch. This is the best conclusion I can come up with, seeing the circumstance.

My face twists into a scowl and I take a step closer, but neither one of the girls notices me yet. Hinata's eyes are wide with fear, and I can see that she's in pain. As I said, Ami has her shoulders pinned against the locker, and she must be pretty strong, because she's clearly hurting Hinata. The fact that she's hurting Hinata makes me want to make sure she never takes another breath. Ever. But I can't kill Ami, not yet anyway. We're at school and I'm pretty sure that murder is against the rules, even if it was deserved. Hinata tries to press her hands against Ami's shoulders to push her away, but just ends up getting more stuck than before.

"I-I…" Hinata tries to say, but she looks too scared to say anything. She shoves Hinata's shoulders against the lockers once more, harder this time. I can actually hear the impact of her back on the locker, and it doesn't sound too nice. Hinata winces in pain and I try to stay calm. My hands clench into fists at my sides. I can't sit here and just do nothing. She's hurting Hinata!

"You just gonna stand there and stutter?" Ami asks. I'm sure it's her now. There's no mistaking it. That's it. I can't take this. I take a few more steps forward, about ten feet away.

"Hinata?" I ask, trying to stay calm. I strain to keep myself in check. Hinata looks up at me and her eyes light up. A light smile then decorates her lips. Her look of happiness when she sees me helps me stay calm, and to not snap. Ami turns around and glances at me before looking back at Hinata.

"Who's that? Your little boyfriend?" Ami asks, smirking. Hinata blushes a light red color and her eyes widen a small bit. Her blush is so cute. Sometimes the blush slowly creeps up, but not now. The bring pink quickly filled up her cheeks as Hinata's eyes avert to the ground.

"I- N-no." Hinata says, still blushing. The question catches Hinata off guard, and that sort of explains the blush. Of course I'm not, that's quite obvious because if I was, Ami would already be dead. Not that I would mind being Hinata's boyfriend, I mean, I'm not. But I wouldn't have any problems with it. A part of me loves thinking like this, but the other refuses and says that I need to stop.

"Just get out of here, Ami." I say. I've had just about enough of Ami for today. I see Ami roll her eyes and she lets go of Hinata. Hinata stumbles and falls, but then quickly stands.

"Ugh. Whatever." She says, walking away. She gives up so easy; I didn't even have to threaten her. I wait until she's gone until I pick up the book and walk over to Hinata who has picked herself up from the ground.

"Are you alright?" I ask, holding out the book to her and smiling.

"Y-yeah. I'm okay. T-thank you, Pein." She says, and I'm about to say something but then I hear quick footsteps racing down the hallway. A pink-haired girl and a blonde girl both trot up and look at Hinata. The pink one lays a hand on her shoulder.

"Hinata! Are you okay?" The pink-headed one asks and rests a hand on her shoulder. I've seen both of these girls at her lunch table a few times, so they must be friends.

"I-yeah. I'm fine." Hinata replies. They must have seen what happened.

"We saw the whole thing! She's so mean! Why would she do that to you?" The blonde one asks. Hinata shrugs lightly, she doesn't know. I don't think any of us do. The two girls then look over at me, surprised to find me standing there.

"Who's this?" The pink-haired one asks and Hinata looks over at me.

"Oh. This is Pein. He and I study together for math." Hinata says, both of the girls nod. I don't bother asking who they are, I don't really care.

"That's cool. We should be getting back to class." The blonde one says, and then both of them leave the hallway. I should probably be getting back to class as well. I had asked the teacher to use the restroom, but in all honesty I just wanted to get out of that stupid classroom. I had been hoping to run into Hinata in the hallway, but not in this way.

"I should be going, too. Be careful." I say. She nods. I walk away and get back to my class. The teacher is slightly mad at me for taking so long, but I don't explain. If it happens again, I can take care of it myself. The rest of the day goes pretty normally, she waves at me during lunch, which makes me quite happy. The others don't notice this, which makes it even better. At our lockers later, just as she shuts her, I rest my hand on her shoulder. I want to talk to her about something.

"Can I talk to you for a minute?" I ask. She looks up at me, as if she's surprised. She nods and starts walking down the hallway with me. I don't really have anywhere in mind, but all of the halls are pretty clear so this is fine for me.

"S-so, what did you want to t-talk to me about?" She asks.

"It's just something that's been bothering me." I say. "It's about earlier. Do you always just ___let_ people talk to you like that? I mean, you could've been seriously hurt if I hadn't stepped in. I guess I just worry about you…..I dunno." I finish, when I end the sentence my voice is pretty quiet. I'm sort of nervous about saying this, has she figured out that I feel more for her than just a friend? I see her shrug.

"I-I don't know. I just, have always been really quiet. F-for some reason I can n-never stand up for myself." She says. I'm already aware of this. I just want to stand up for her, so she doesn't have to. But does she want that? And if she doesn't, how can I deal with that? All of this is weird and confusing to me. It's all weird and confusing to me. None of it is making any sense to me. I don't understand how I can go from not knowing a thing about her, to wanting to stand up for her.

"I'm honestly not sure why I worry about you so much. I guess it's just because you're so nice to everyone, I don't really understand why people would be mean to you. Yeah, you're shy, but you're never mean." I explain. She's never mean, not even to me.

"I-I'm not sure why I'm so shy. I-I wish I wasn't. It-it's really nice of you t-to worry about me, but you shouldn't. I-I'm fine." She says. That's a flat out lie. She's not fine. She can't stand up for herself.

"You're not fine. You struggled to say anything to Ami, let alone, fight back." I say, shaking my head. She shrugs again.

"I guess it shouldn't bother me as much as it should, but it does. Anyways, you should….go. Don't want Neji mad at you." I add. I don't want Neji to be mad at her, although I know it make him burn up if he knew that she was with me. I don't care if Neji is mad at me, but he shouldn't be mad at her.

"R-right." She says quietly. She walks away, walking home alone. I figure that she'll be okay because it's in the middle of the day, not to mention she doesn't live far from here anyway. I walk home after that as well, having no reason to stick around the school. I can't help but constantly think about her. My thoughts are constantly clouded with her image, with things she says to me, or the way she looks down every time she talks. Everything about her screams innocent, now that I think about it. She was so nice and Neji was so…..not. He was her opposite, but then again, so am I. But if she's my opposite, why am I so attracted to her? I sigh and open the door to the apartment. Most of them sit on the floor in the living room, hovering above something that looks like a board game.

"Dammit Kakuzu! You always win Monopoly!" Itachi yells. Kakuzu's mask covers the smirk on his face, but we all know it's there. I roll my eyes. They're such children. What's next, Candy Land? I actually smirk at the thought of them huddled around a Candy Land board.

"What's so funny?" Sasori asks, passing me on his way to the kitchen. I shake my head.

"Nothing." I reply, and walk to my room. I flop down on my bed, laying on my back and staring up at the ceiling. Except I don't see the ceiling. All I can see is her. Visions of her bright Byakugan eyes, in contrast with that dark midnight hair. She was beautiful. Anyone who thought different was either lying or insane. She looked like one of those angels that you saw on T.V. for sleeping pill commercials. Yes, that's what she reminded me of. An angel. And a perfect one at that. Her ivory skin, like the color of the white keys on a piano, was almost translucent. Sometimes, you could see her veins through her skin. Everything about her drags you in. From her small shy smiles, to her cute little giggles. She's perfect, and I don't see why it took me nearly a month to realize that. I wanted Hinata Hyuuga, and nothing was going to stand in my way.


End file.
